The Coimbatore district police have demanded their home department to get permission from the government to allow NCC, NSS students along with uniformed service personnel at the premises of polling centres to manage the security measures, as police strength is been a shortage in the district.
"To manage the shortage in police personnel, the department used to get additional strength from home guards, Tamil special police (TSP) battalion and neighbouring districts. As the strength is a remaining shortage here this year, we asked permission for NCC and NSS students," said sources. A letter to seek permission to use them in the premises polling centres was sent to DGP office, sources added.
As of now we have 917 polling centres in rural Coimbatore, in which each centre has many booths. Besides, 212 centres are listed as vulnerable. There are now 900 more booths than in the previous election. That means 34 per cent of booths were increased. But the police strength was increased only 10 per cent and it is not enough to cover all the polling booths, according to the sources.
"We have asked permission to depute all uniformed personnel including the fire and rescue services, forest and prison department. Also the strength of home guard, TSP and Coimbatore city police will be taken into the account. A total of 5500 people are needed for security work at the polling centres as it is imperative to keep police for essential needs, including check post and state border security and to manage police stations," said Ara Arularasu, Coimbatore Police superintendent.
"However, as the demand for manpower is high, we urge the NCC (comes under the control of the Ministry of Defense) and NSS (falls under the state's higher education department) to be allowed inside the premises of the polling centres, not into the booths. We asked that they be allowed to manage the votes queue lines and keep the premises without crowded," he said. Further, he said that CRPF soldiers will be deployed there if there is a vulnerable booth. But normal polling centres should only be monitored by the police.
"Previously we used NCC students up to a distance of 100 meters from the polling centre. We are currently asking NCC and NSS students to be allowed on campus. The district has 1,000 NCC students and 8,000 NSS students under Bharathiar University. So if we get permission, we can use all the sources to handle the task easily," he added.
